A man charged with murder in a 2017 homicide in Des Moines has died in jail of natural causes while awaiting trial.

Court records show Ricky Hascall died Sept. 16 of natural causes while being held at the Polk County Jail. He was 51.

In August, a judge granted a request to delay a hearing in Hascall's case after his lawyers said Hascall had been hospitalized with environmental pneumonia for four weeks and that the disease was not responding to antibiotics.

Hascall had been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the death of 31-year-old Michael Huckleberry in January 2017. Police said Hascall and two co-defendants, Monica Fagan, 27, and Sarah Saltz, 25, robbed and assaulted Huckleberry at his apartment on Jan. 27. Huckleberry was found dead in his apartment two days later when a neighbor checked on him.

Monica Fagan(Photo: Special to The Register)

Preliminary autopsy results showed evidence of trauma to Huckleberry's head and a stab wound to the back.

Court documents allege Fagan told police that she was angry with Huckleberry for "threatening her family" and refusing to return her DJ equipment. She, Hascall and Saltz came up with a plan to give Huckleberry a bad dose of heroin that would incapacitate him while they entered the apartment and stole the equipment, court records show.

When they got to the apartment, Fagan and Hascall felt that "too much time had passed" after Saltz entered, so they knocked on Huckleberry's door and assaulted him when he answered, according to court documents.

Sarah Saltz(Photo: Polk County Jail / Special to the Register)

Hascall took Huckleberry to the ground and sat on him while Saltz bound his hands and feet, and then Fagan "kicked him in the face/head area, wearing a pair of black boots," according to court documents.

Saltz pleaded guilty in June to first-degree robbery and second-degree theft. She was sentenced to 25 years in prison, court records show.

Fagan has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. A plea hearing in her case has been scheduled for Jan. 2, 2019.